The Beatles legend is desperate to put his divorce battle behind him and has decided to hit the road again.A source told Britain's Daily Express newspaper: 'Paul is itching to get back and play live. He never even got to perform in the UK or Europe so he's keen to rectify that. He has always loved touring and sees it as the perfect way to putting his problems behind him.' Sir Paul, 64, was forced to abandon the European leg of his world tour last year because of his marital problems. The couple - who have a three-year-old daughter Beatrice together - split last May after four years of marriage.According to friends, Sir Paul will use his new stadium tour to promote his forthcoming album, which is to be released this summer on the new Starbucks record label, Hear Music.Sir Paul - who was the first artist to sign to the label - is leaving Capitol Records who he has worked with on and off for 43 years, to join the new Los Angeles-based music venture.
Sir Paul McCartney's relationship with heiress Sabrina Guinness is just a friendship, the ex-Beatle's spokesman said today. The 64-year-old was photographed outside the home of the 52-year-old former love of the Prince of Wales. The pair are said to have met for a dinner date on Wednesday night, with the socialite comforting the singer over his divorce battle. But the singer's spokesman Stuart Bell said: "There is no relationship beyond friendship." The singer, whose estranged wife Heather Mills is starring on US reality TV show Dancing with the Stars, said: "I realise everyone wants to see me with a new bird right now and that's very flattering. "I have known this lady for a while. We enjoy each other's company. When we get together we talk about stuff like the environment and Al Gore, things like that." He told the Daily Mail: "I have had a terrible day at the office and as you probably know I'm going through a pretty difficult divorce right now too." The star added: "It's not really a big thing. We have known each other a long time." Macca invited Miss Guinness to join him and his daughter Stella and her husband Alasdhair Willis for dinner in an Italian restaurant in Notting Hill, west London. But his plans were scuppered by the paparazzi, and after picking her up in his chauffeured Lexus, he dropped off the heiress to the Guinness industry at a friend's house before going to the restaurant alone - informing photographers that they had ruined his night.
Paul McCartney was introduced as the first artist signed to Starbucks Corp.'s new record label, lending an iconic nameplate to the coffeehouse giant's latest entertainment venture. The former Beatle, who made an appearance over a video feed from London at the company's annual meeting Wednesday, said he expects to release his next album on Starbucks' new Hear Music label in early June. McCartney said he was impressed with Hear Music's push to use Starbucks' 13,500 retail outlets as part of its sales plan. He also praised the company's dedication. 'For me, the great thing is the commitment and the passion and the love of music, which as an artist is good to see,' he said. The company said McCartney was signing a one-album deal with Hear Music, the partnership between Seattle-based Starbucks and Concord Music Group announced last week. Financial terms were not disclosed. McCartney's rights to his previous song catalog are not part of the deal with Starbucks, said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks' entertainment unit. McCartney most recently released records through EMI Group PLC. The label plans to sell albums through traditional and digital music outlets, with no advance sales and no additional content for Starbucks stores. Rather than overshadowing the next artists to join the label, McCartney could serve as an 'anchor' artist who may help sway other musicians to the label, said Geoff Mayfield, a senior analyst for Billboard magazine. 'I can't criticize them for choosing a Beatle to start their enterprise,' Mayfield said. The McCartney announcement is another big step for Starbucks' attempts to spin part of its consumer appeal into the entertainment business. The coffeehouse chain already has produced and sold some albums, markets books, and helped develop a feature-length movie. Lombard said Starbucks Entertainment is currently profitable. Hear Music has been used as a brand on other releases developed for sale in Starbucks stores. The coffee giant also has a branded page on Apple Inc.'s iTunes digital music store, and it has a handful of hybrid music-and-coffee stores that allow customers to burn tracks to CDs. Concord, which controls several other labels, helped Starbucks sell the Grammy-winning 'Genius Loves Company,' an album of Ray Charles duets. Lombard said Hear Music has been in talks with other artists and expects to sign two more this year and another eight next year.
Paul McCartney is splitting with the record company he’s called home for most of the last 43 years. Except for a brief break in the early 1980s when he skipped to Columbia Records and then back, McCartney has been with Capitol since the Beatles’ first album in 1964. But he’s leaving, effective immediately, and taking his entire back catalog of solo albums with him. That’s everything including bestsellers like "Band on the Run," "McCartney," "Ram," "Flowers in the Dirt," "Tug of War" and his critically acclaimed most recent album, "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard," nominated for four Grammys, including Album of the Year, in 2006. That much is news. This much has also been reported: McCartney will be the first artist signed with Starbucks’ new record label. News of the label and McCartney’s potential involvement were first suggested in Sunday’s New York Post.
But I can tell you exclusively: It’s a done deal. It will be announced this week. McCartney will first offer just his new album to Starbucks for a fall release. The rest of the catalog he will sit on for the moment. Capitol, I can also tell you, is not happy. They are part of the ailing EMI Records empire. EMI, like Warner Music, is suffering and could collapse at any time. This news is a terrible blow to them. "They knew it was coming," a source says. "They did nothing for the 'Chaos' album, and they were reminded that McCartney’s entire contract was ending. Look, they did nothing for the Beatles’ 'Love' album this winter. It just sold on its own. Everything they do is outdated." McCartney’s exit from Capitol is interesting in many ways. Every since the Beatles joined Capitol, all their albums and all their solo albums have come from the label. Capitol’s association with the group since they broke up in 1970 has always been key. McCartney’s Wings albums were with the label, as was John Lennon’s "Imagine," George Harrison’s "All Things Must Pass" and Ringo Starr’s "Ringo!" Even Sean Lennon has released a Capitol album. But all that may change now that McCartney has flown the coop. Starbucks has proven to be a much more effective seller of CDs and DVDs than record stores, thanks to their amazing retailing and branding. Starbucks customers have come to regard non-coffee product merchandise as hip and attractive, while record companies have been unable to reach customers at all in recent years.
Sir Paul pleads: Get me back to where I once belonged
11/03/07 Exclusive By Chris Goodman
PAUL McCartney is planning to release an album as soon as his divorce is over. Friends say the former Beatle is desperate to be known for his music again “The album is scheduled for seven or eight weeks’ time, it’s imminent,” said a source close to McCartney’s company MPL.
“It’s a rock album. But he knows that just because he might win a court case, it doesn’t necessarily mean fans will buy his album. “It’s almost like starting out again for him. He lost touch with his core fans when he married Heather and he wants to reconnect.” Another McCartney aide said: “We’ve been told to stand by for an album. He has been working on it for some time and it will be the first of two projects, the second being a guitar concerto.”
But he is just as concerned at the damage the marriage has done to his reputation as Britain’s biggest rock star. “Before he met her, he was the chairman of the board of rock’n’roll,” said the source. “Now he’s more like the chairman of Grace Brothers. He’s old Mr Grace. People love
Paul because he’s a national icon but the national icon has been made to look a fool. Colleagues are talking about a series of intimate gigs to relaunch McCartney, or even an impromptu tour in the style of his 1970s band, Wings, who turned up unannounced at universities, asking to play.
Sir Paul has always been keen on intimate gigs as a way of directly reaching fans. After The Beatles gave up live performances in 1966, he suggested they turn up at pubs to play and has repeatedly planned smaller shows over the years. His daughter, fashion designer Stella, 35, has been helping him plan his future and has taken an active role in his business affairs over the past few months. “It’s true, Stella has been running the show,” said the source. “She’s making decisions, backing Paul up on a lot. “She’s his main ally and of all his children, the one most like him. She took the marriage personally, she hated it from day one, everyone who was at the wedding will tell you that, she wasn’t smiling. Stella’s a good girl, she has the same honesty and work ethics as her father. She understands the responsibility of being a McCartney.”
Just to give you an update, the Maccaspan board is hosted on Maccaspan.com, BUT all the account info and posts are kept on a database on phpBB.com. This is the message we got when we went tho their website.
Ouch! RAID array failure…
We’re sad to announce that during the switch of a failed harddisk to the hot-spare and the planned 2 hours required for the array to re-sync, we’ve been hit by an extremely unexpected double-disk failure which leaves us with a dead array. As the server needs to be rebuilt with a new set of harddisks and reconfigured, there will be a number of days of downtime whilst this holding page is up on a vserver and that the server failure can be recovered from with the existing phpBB.com website and data from our private CVS repositories restored. In the mean time, please direct yourself to our temporary support forums over at Area51. Bertie probably shouldn’t have fed the server honey to see if that would make it feel better… Cheers :(
Where does that leave us? For now the Maccaspan forum will be temporarly be running on its old home at forumforfree until the main phpBB gets it's database going.
So you may have to re-register just to use the OLD board unless you can remember your old account (see, I told ya to use your old username!) All new accounts will be USER registered, so you'll be posting in no time!
Paul McCartney has reportedly given Heather Mills a £2million “down-payment” to keep her financially solvent until the financial aspect of their divorce is settled.
According to a source close to the former Beatles, he gave the money as a “goodwill gesture without prejudice”.
The source told the Sun: “The £2million is all down to the fact Paul is a superbly warm and generous human being.”
“He recognises that there were good times. But the cash he agreed to hand over doesn’t prejudice what the eventual settlement will be. It’s to tide her over.”
In related news, Heather is still videoing her interactions with photographers during the divorce proceedings. She was spotted filming with her camcorder while driving away from Brighton railway station this week.
An onlooker reports: “She pulled out of the station holding the camera and looking out of the window. Then she sped off and ran a red light a bit further down the road. There was no way she was paying full attention to the road. It’s lucky she didn’t have an accident.”
LONDON -- Paul McCartney and his estranged wife, Heather Mills McCartney, appeared in London's High Court on Thursday for a preliminary hearing in their divorce case.
Mills McCartney, 38, said nothing as she arrived at the courthouse for the closed door session. The 64-year-old former Beatle arrived at the court's backdoor soon after.
McCartney whistled and snapped his fingers as he left the building after the two-hour hearing, flashing a peace sign to photographers stationed outside the court's parking lot before being driven off in a waiting car.
Mills McCartney left through a backdoor about 30 minutes later.
The couple separated last May after four years of marriage and began divorce proceedings in July. They have a 3-year-old daughter, Beatrice.
British law forbids publishing details of allegations in divorce cases. Mills McCartney began legal action against a number of media outlets after disparaging claims about her husband, alleged to have been contained in divorce court papers drawn up on her behalf, were reported in the press.
SIR Paul McCartney hops into a car with daughter Beatrice — after bumping into fellow Beatles legend Ringo Starr. Macca met the 66-year-old drummer and his actress wife Barbara Bach, 59, as he picked up Beatrice, three, from a party.
But he couldn’t chat for long — so no doubt he’ll give his old pal a ring. Ringo was one of the first to give 64-year-old Paul plenty of support after his split from wife Heather Mills, 39.
Macca — whose grown-up daughters Stella, 35, and Mary, 37, were also at the bash in Westbourne Grove, West London — looked relaxed despite the bitter High Court divorce battle.
With a little help from his friends he’ll pull through...
This Year's Outstanding Achievement Award Presented for Contributions to "Paul McCartney: The Space Within Us"
DMN Newswire--2007-3-1--NEW YORK -- PostWorks, New York (www.pwny.com) is proud to announce that re-recording mixer and supervising sound editor Matt Foglia, CAS, has earned this year's Cinema Audio Society Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing Award for his contributions as re-recording mixer on "Paul McCartney: The Space Within Us." The concert film debuted on A&E last October, and an expanded version was released on DVD in November. Foglia's win in the "Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television for Non-Fiction, Variety or Music Series or Specials" category is his second straight. Last year's honor came for his work on the PBS special, "Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Hammersmith Odeon, London 1975."
The latest winning project combines live performance footage from McCartney's sold-out 2005 U.S. tour with other behind-the-scenes tour footage and interviews. Captured in HD by producer/director Mark Haefeli of New York-based Mark Haefeli Productions (www.mhp3.com), the project features a custom 5.1 surround mix, courtesy of Foglia and co-winner, music producer/mixer David Kahne.
For the project, Haefeli and editors Zoran Jevremov and Mitch Jacobson provided original media footage of the documentary and musical portions of the program to Foglia, who also received music mixes and isolated audience tracks from Kahne. Foglia then reconformed all of the music in stereo and 5.1, along with all of the accompanying audience tracks. Monitoring primarily in 5.1, Foglia mixed the documentary sections – effecting background layers and music provided by Jevremov –created sound design, sweetened the transitions and developed audience blends.
According to Foglia, his biggest challenge came in designing the sound mix prior to the beginning of the first song, "Magical Mystery Tour." "Mark and Zoran wanted the beginning to escalate in level and intensity, similar to a space launch, so that when the first song started, the intensity was at a maximum," Foglia explained. "There were so many clips, layers and internal edits, it took a lot of balancing to achieve that effect sonically, while also abiding by the network's specifications."
Continuing, Foglia added, "Mark produces and directs a lot of amazing projects, and he gives me freedom to ‘do my thing,' so working with him and his company is always a great experience."
"Paul McCartney: The Space Within Us" is the third Paul McCartney TV special produced by MHP which features Foglia's talents. Others include "Paul McCartney: In Red Square," for which Foglia was nominated for an Emmy.
A guitar that Paul McCartney threw into a crowd decades ago during a Beatles concert in Britain has turned up at a school in Montenegro, a report said Friday.
McCartney had tossed the Hofner Violin bass guitar into the audience after its neck broke, said the Vesti newspaper without mentioning the year of the concert.
Milan Dobrilovic, a Montenegrin cameraman, said he had received the guitar from his cousin Dario Persi who was the fan who caught the instrument.
Dobrilovic recently donated the guitar to a music school in Herceg Novi, a tiny town on the country's Adriatic coast.
The violin-shaped Hofner guitar was made famous by McCartney, who adopted it in 1961 and still uses the same model.
Guitars proven to have been owned by former Beatles members including McCartney and John Lennon have sold at auction for up to 330,000 pounds (640,000 dollars) in recent years.
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